Connect This Space Between

[thepurpleone]

WHO: Donnie and you..?!
WHERE: The Warrens
WHAT: Taking things one step at a time...
WHEN: Post volcano eruption
WARNINGS: N/A
NOTES: Will match tag format.


i. hanging in there
The trip down had more or less been a mechanical process. Just follow everyone down, one foot in front of the other. For all that he's observed, the whole matter of a volcanic explosion happening somewhere overhead was still a difficult thing to process, or perhaps it was just everything else with that just topping it all off. He'd traveled in uncharacteristic silence, just waiting for that last straw that would possibly make him snap.

Thankfully he's been able to hold it together. Fresh water helps, and having other things to mind has kept his thoughts from spiraling completely out of control. It might be an odd sight to see a humanoid turtle carrying a makeshift tank with some kind of local alien turtleish creature in it, but Donnie's clung to it like a lifeline. And then there's DATA, Tony's strange little robot-spy-camera who's apparently been demoted to a cantaloupe as Donnie's chosen method of carrying him along is by a net-like bag. But now there's space and they can rest, so they're set down while the teenage turtle tries to get some feeling back in his fingers as he slowly allows himself to start assessing their new surroundings. Data collection usually helps him relax.


ii. like mapping out dungeons
Being underground isn't really a problem for him. He's more or less lived underground all his life, and compared to the sewers of New York, this is far less complicated to navigate.

Donnie takes to mapping things out, wandering the strange tunnels. He hasn't yet managed to cobble together a replacement computer for the one he sorely misses wearing on his arm, so he's doing things the old-fashioned way, with pencil and paper. He's tackling things in sections, intent on working out every possible direction down one way before he'll commit to the next. Which will explain his absence from the main area at given times. This may not be some technical project to work on, but he's approaching it the same way, completely caught up in his findings.

Someone might want to make sure he remembers to eat or you know, sleep.


iii. no time for idle hands
If he'd been completely without some sort of access to tech he might have lost it by now. At least here the atmosphere is much more inviting than Calibrations. But it also means there's no doors he can close when he wants to keep to himself and work on things. Not that he's finding himself too bothered by people.

His main concern is potential fire hazards, and what with moss and mats everywhere, at times Donnie gathers up some of his things and relocates himself down some tunnel or another where there's less of a risk of burning anything when he tries to do some circuitry work or welding.


iv. aces wild
Choose your own adventure! Throw me a starter or whatever.

Comments

[in_extremis]

Tony was definitely going to have to talk to the Barrys. Maybe their math was better. Before he tried to find one of them, though, he asked, "How many turnings have you seen?," with some cringing at the clumsy language he was capable of.

[trpmods]

Ah, that is a good question. They take turns giving an answer. The speckled one says five, and the red and orange proudly announces that it's seen closer to nine.

[in_extremis]

That was some context for Tony to understand how exactly they might be using 'old' and 'new', but he realized he only had unsubstantiated theories about what 'turning' actually meant and had to follow up with a gesture toward the speckled Funfrond, "Is that how long you have been watching the talking animals?"

[trpmods]

Oh, very smart man, this talking animal. In fact, it's the red-yellow cap that responds.

[... was new Frond when Talking Animals come. Little cap.]

Which might well line up with the roughly four years or so the He Rows had been present.

[in_extremis]

Huh. If he had kept translating 'turning' as 'years', they might have a similar perception of time to the Agrii. Tony went expectantly still, or as still as Tony got, having to restrain himself from tapping out restless nonsense to the Funfronds until he said, "Sorry it took so long for us to speak." After another beat, he added, "I don't think we knew to see you, when we're looking. We've been looking very far. Do you go very far? To those mountains, maybe?" He definitely didn't have the vocabulary to explain which mountain he meant, but hopefully his desperate gestures muddling water, mountain, very far, would orient them and one of them would give him the words for cardinal directions.

[trpmods]

[High places not ours. Too cold. Bad for us. Warm better. Dark better. Once ... pine-kin. No more. Blight came. Much sad. Gone from this mountains, in others.]

So that probably means they don't go to the mountains, and there used to be another type of plantkin there. But those are gone now because of an illness? That's probably what they're trying to say.

[in_extremis]

That must not have been the volcano they knew about then, and it did kind of sound like their territory covered at least a little further than whoever was messing with Tony's suit wanted him to go. Had he seen another mountain that could have been active? Either volcanically, or with another plant-population.

"Would the fruit-kin know more about them?" he asked, stretching up to his feet then, making gestures to leave.

[trpmods]

[Yes. Fruit-kin travel far. Nest help come from far far far!]

The foods the Barrys were bringing did seem to be all from the Sh'Ka greenhouse, for someone who was familiar with the differences. So the Barrys were absolutely coming a great distance to offer assistance. They were greatly traveled.

[in_extremis]

Tony nodded, and started to gesture his thanks and farewell, then stopped to suggest, "The next time you see us talking, don't hide. I'll talk for you. Friends." He wasn't sure what else he could possibly offer a little dancing mushroom, so hopefully that was a reasonably valuable exchange. He hadn't seen any of them wearing expensive jewellery.

[trpmods]

They two do a spinning curtsy of goodbye and then dart off. Because they have so much they can teach other Funfronds about this now!

[in_extremis]

Tony, meanwhile, did his own spinning in place, to try to orient himself and figure out where to start looking for a Barry to ask about bones. This was exhausting. Maybe if he tried tapping at a vent, one of them would hear him.

[trpmods]

It is indeed smart to tap at a vent. Especially at one where the Funfronds have clearly already established stairs for their fruitkin. Not long after rapping on one there would be an answering tapping-rapping-thumping that is the Barry speech. Nothing quite like percussive conversation that actually sort of mimics something like a cross between Morse Code and binary.

[Who calls to request of us? What need have you? Colony very busy with the bringing of supplies. Queen order reduced questions if they are not important or from good Hivefriend.]

Got to appreciate a species whose grammatical structure is more up to Talking Animal standards.

[in_extremis]

Not just Talking Animal standards, but with a syntax like this, Tony felt very comfortable adapting and making new words that fit into the structure easily. It was with a lot less hesitation than how he approached his Funfrond dancing that he answered, "I'll be fast. Important. To be more efficient and build. How old are these tunnels? Are there ever new ones?"

[trpmods]

Now that was a question met with a delay and silence while the no doubt Worker Barry (for there was less of the specific tone of taps that came with a thorn sword than a Warrior Barry would have), considers and restructures the question in its mind.

[Such things must be cross referenced with the records. Only Queen may do this with Recorders. May be less accurate for this biome, as it is not ours. Return for answer in three of your hour units. Here or to any Barry. Records should be searched then. Agreeable?]

[in_extremis]

Tony did not have a remarkable storage of patience, and even less so for structural systems that he was used to charming, hacking, or blasting his way through. He wrinkled his nose and was tapping rapidly, fingers dancing easily like on a keyboard, "What if I got you a pony?" That was probably adding time to his requisite processing period, abort. Less enthusiastically, "Will I talk to the Queen then? Might have more questions. Faster."

[trpmods]

The Worker Barry actually came then to push the grate open to look out at Tony.

[The time is not needed for relaying. Hive Queen is a three-night from us now. But all Hive can speak to her alone no matter distance. Time is needed for Recorders to accurately check records. Measure for changes in our Warrens, and their times. Three of your hour units are deemed sufficient.]

Was it possible for tapping to be somehow patient in the process of explaining? Maybe it was, or maybe that was just how Worker Barrys tapped things out, while Warriors were brusque and sharp. Pounding feet and fingers versus tapping swords perhaps.

[in_extremis]

The Barry revealing itself had Tony expecting to be berated, so he raised a sheepish hand in greeting with an innocent smile that was gone as he listened, frowning thoughtfully instead. That seemed like a perfectly rational reason to make him wait, and a promising one, too, if it wasn't a simple yes or no, but that did still mean he would have to accept waiting for three hours, which was untenable. "Where are your records?" he asked. Maybe he could check for himself. They clearly weren't somewhere in the path of the volcano.

[trpmods]

Oh, that is a good question. But surely Tony knows, doesn't he? Had the Dustin-Friend not told them? Intriguing. This will absolutely be relayed to the Queen.

[In Colony, in the stone city. We are of there. Workers and Warriors come from the Clear Palace near the colony to bring food to Hivebrother and his colony. In full shifts. Always bringing new things, to carry to here. The journey is very long.]

[in_extremis]

'Stone city' was easy enough to work out, and might have been a better name for the place, but it took Tony a beat to work out 'clear palace' and he was briefly panicked that he might have impulsively carpet bombed yet another civilization. He clearly couldn't help himself. Food would be from the greenhouse, though, and Tony's electric tension dispersed a little through his rapid drumming, eyes on his own fingers now, "Why didn't we just go to you?"

[trpmods]

That was a very good question wasn't it? The Barry shrugged.

[Fungus-Kin did not explain the danger until much later. The metal snake that brings you animals to us no longer functioned. But Warrens are safe. Hivequeen says to tell that they are very safe. We have stored records in them for generations.]

[in_extremis]

That was not nearly a satisfactory answer to a good question, making Tony's brow furrow again, this time with frustration and a skeptical glance over his shoulder for any of the Funfronds. Or Dustin. They had clearly been more than capable of walking for as long as it took to get here, and above ground they'd had the capability of moving faster and carrying more. Cal and Tony had already made way points between the two cities to link their networks.

"You didn't make them," Tony pointed out. "Or the stone city. Aren't you worried that the people who did will come back?"

[trpmods]

The Barry shrugged. It wasn't its job to worry. It was its job to obey.

[Secure place. Never change but our change. Is safe enough.]

[in_extremis]

Now Tony turned his skeptical look on the Barry before asking, "What's in the records that is going to tell me differently?"

[trpmods]

Really? You're asking about the records?

[I am not a Recorder. I do not know. Shall I add the question?]

[in_extremis]

Tony wasn't sure how that was a different question to the one he had started with, and was interested to find out, after a beat of seriously considering arguing with the little fruit about it. It was possible he didn't need to argue about everything. "Sure," he tapped, then, "And while you're at it, add one about the records of volcanoes. There have been some before. Did they all happen so quickly?"